Big Issue vendor Simon Denis was sleeping rough before he started selling the magazine and revealed how he would sleep on night buses to get out of the rain while on the streets in a new interview. Denis, 61, who sells the magazine outside Pret a Manger in Cheapside in the City of London, started selling the Big Issue after his 18-month apprenticeship with the government ended in 2010. I thought, I’m going to have to pick up Big Issue and see what that’s like,” he told Big Issue in the My Pitch interview in this week’s magazine. I was sleeping rough and I ended up on the streets for about 16 months. Since he started selling the Big Issue, Denis has been able to get himself off the streets and into accommodation.